India's suicide epidemic is blamed on the British

The current link between aid and economic liberalization has forced developing countries to adopt policies that do harm to their own people. In India, the suicide rate among farmers (typically a low risk group) has skyrocketed due to overwhelming debt and shame, debts that exceed 5 – 10 times a normal income yet pale in comparison to some first world credit card bills. In an effort to globalize and force trade onto other, less competitive countries, the British government has inadvertantly funded this spike in suicides. The question that begs to be asked is: “will other countries persuaded into liberalization of their economies reap the same benefits?”

Trade reforms backed and funded by the British Government have caused an agricultural crisis in India which has sparked an epidemic of suicide among impoverished farmers, a leading charity claims today.

More than 4,000 farmers have killed themselves in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh since a programme of free-market measures was implemented by a “hardline liberalising regime” with the help of a £1.65m grant from the Department for International Development (DfID).

A study for Christian Aid claims that the dramatic increase in the suicide rate, which saw 2,115 farmers take their lives last year compared with 588 in 2003, is directly linked to British support for policies joining aid to economic liberalisation in developing economies.

Research found that farmers in Andhra Pradesh who had traditionally grown their own food were persuaded between 1999 and 2004 to swap to cash crops and incurred large debts which they were unable to pay due to wildly fluctuating global prices.

The result has been a catalogue of family tragedies among thousands of peasant farmers who were forced to approach unscrupulous money lenders to fund fertilisers, pesticides and water boreholes that produce little or no financial return.

Among the methods of suicide chosen by victims has been to drink…

Posted by alpinestar
I have lived many lives in many countries. an alchemist on a constant quest for truth. my destiny is as of yet unclear, but i am still immature. i only want to learn as much as i can before i die. minimalism, naturalism and a few other isms define me ...